When I'm Wiser and I'm Older
by PunkPinkPower
Summary: Iota Sigma Psi was known on campus to attract the most intelligent ladies of the STEM fields. Angela mentors Kendrix, and Hayley, well, Hayley runs the campus coffee shop.


Notes: Written for Arytra for Power Ranger Day 2013. I must say, this is a fantastic headcanon and I love it and it shall be mine forever. Thank you for putting it in my head, Arytra! Also the Sorority is made up. I have no idea if Iota Sigma Psi actually exists, but if it does this can only be a testiment to it's awesomeness, so no apologies there.

* * *

The all night campus coffee shop on the top floor of the student union building was technically owned by a man named Raul Estevez, but no one on campus you asked could tell you that. As far as every undergraduate at Boston University was concerned, Insomniac Coffee belonged to one woman, and her name was Hayley.

Kendrix learns Hayley's name her first day there, when one of her professors warns the students not to stay up all night enjoying Hayley's fabulous coffee. Another professor tells her class that if he sees them out of class, most likely at Hayley's coffee shop that night, they can call him Jim.

Her name seems to buzz around campus like a mysterious celebrity, as though Hayley is the one truly in charge of this college. Kendrix never hears a bad word about her.

It's not until she is officially accepted to her sorority the next semester, though, that she finally meets Hayley, and it isn't quite a lasting impression.

"Hi," an older woman greets her at the door with her things, "You're Kendrix Morgan, right?"

Kendrix nods. "Yes, that's me."

"I'm Angela," Angela says, helping Kendrix with her bags, "And I'm going to be your big sister. Sorority thing," Angela clarifies when Kendrix raises her eyebrows.

A young woman with dark caramel hair in pajama's walks past them like a zombie, but she does quickly wave at Angela before disappearing behind a door.

"Don't mind Hayley," Angela tells Kendrix as she shows her to her room, "She's always like that in the afternoons, especially just after the weekend. It's a miracle she makes it to any of her classes!"

Kendrix double-takes, and looks at the closed door. "That's Hayley? _The_ Hayley?"

Angela smiles amusedly. "Yep, that's Hayley."

Kendrix had never imagined herself the type to join a sorority. She wasn't very interested in partying, as most sororities seemed to be preoccupied with, but the idea of sisterhood had always appealed to her. It wasn't until her advising professor has recommended Iota Sigma Psi that she'd even considered it.

"They're not like most sororities, if that's your hold back," her advisor had said, "They tend to attract a pretty elite intellectual crowd. Not a name in there I don't expect to see famous in a few years."

Kendrix learns pretty quickly that her advisor had been right.

"I'm earning a double doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and Neuroscience," Angela tells her when she asks, "And I'm writing my doctoral thesis on the possibility of harnessing biomechanical power sources to enhance human capabilities."

"That's impressive," Kendrix tells her sheepishly, "I still debating between doing a double in Biomathematics and Computer Science or doing Biomathematics as a minor."

"Doubling isn't easy," Angela tells her, but she has a small twinkle in her eye, "But if you decide to do it you're in the right place."

* * *

She's working on an essay one night in her room when someone knows on the door, and Kendrix turns around to see Hayley looking like a rock star. She's a far cry from the mess she'd been the other day.

"Angela tells me you don't drink coffee," Hayley says suspiciously, but her face still looks warm and inviting.

Kendrix doesn't feel too nervous when she says, "No, I try to stay away from caffeine."

Hayley nods, steps into her room. "I make a killer hot chocolate if you're interested. First one's on the house when you stop by."

Kendrix tilts her head, pushes her glassed up her nose and grins. "You know, most people just make a snide remark about how that'll change when I'm older."

Hayley shrugs. "Most people equate old age with wisdom, but you can be young and still be wise. I like people who know what they want and what they stand for."

She waves quickly before backing out the door to go to work, and Kendrix writes down the thing about old age and wisdom. She tries to take notes any time she thinks something is important, and she's pretty sure that had been.

* * *

Angela gets a little manic near the end of the year.

Kendrix feels pressured, now that she's decided to do her double major, but Angela is… something out of a college horror story.

At one point she thinks she's lost her dissertation, and she sits in the foyer of their sorority house, wailing until Kendrix can get her computer booted and find it.

"I love the end of year," Hayley says gleefully, putting on her glamour jewelry and glittery top at her vanity mirror that night, "It's always interesting to see how people react under pressure."

"It's awful," Kendrix says, sitting on Hayley's bed but grinning none-the-less, "I've seen toddlers freak out less than some of our sisters."

Hayley giggles. "You're doing alright, though, hmm? Gonna get through the end of the year without cracking?"

Kendrix shakes her head. "It's anyone guess at this point."

Hayley stands up, smiles at her, and grabs her scarf. "You'll be fine. You're the coolest under pressure I've ever seen."

"Hayley," Kendrix says curiously, "I never did ask you. What is your major?"

Hayley stops at the door, purses her lips and seems to consider that. Finally she gets a brilliant smile on her face and waves her hand floatingly in the air. "People," she says, "I'm majoring in people."

* * *

It's not until Kendrix's senior year that she actually does learn that Hayley's major is.

"Liberal Arts?" Kendrix wonder's incredulously, sitting in Hayley's coffee shop with her and Angela at four a.m., "You're majoring in Liberal Arts?"

"Listen to the way she says that," Hayley laughs, sipping her coffee, "Like it's the plague."

Angela giggles.

"But you have a genius level IQ! You could do anything, Hayley!" Kendrix insists, stirring her hot chocolate.

"And I am," Hayley tells her happily, "I am doing exactly what I want to be doing. Do you have any idea how many kids I've helped graduate in the six years I've been here? I've gotten more people on the right path to doing what they want to be doing that any college advisor in history. See that guy over there?" Hayley says, pointing to the corner. "He was a mess when he got here. Always forgetting things, never remembering to set his alarm, had no clue what to do with his life. Now he's on the fast track to earning his doctorate in Paleontology."

Kendrix deflates. "People," she repeats, grinning, "You said you were majoring in people."

"I didn't lie," Hayley grins, finishing her coffee and standing up, "And one day I'll own my own coffee shop and keep on doing what I'm doing."

"She's being modest," Angela insists as Hayley walks back to the counter to help someone. "She knows a little about everything and everyone. You remember when she helped you break that code for your computer class final?" Kendrix nods. "And she proofread the first four drafts of my dissertation and made corrections. She helps everyone with their homework, so Liberal Arts really is the best way to put it, because she's majored in _everything_."

"But I thought you had to be majoring in a STEM field to be accepted for membership in ISP?" Kendrix wonders, and Angela giggles.

"Oh, you do. She just never told them what her major was when she applied, and well, you know Hayley, and they just assumed," Angela says, and she and Kendrix both break into giggles.

* * *

Kendrix graduated with honors with her dual degrees the same year that Angela finally finishes her dissertation and graduates, too.

"So, the world is yours, ladies!" Hayley toasts them that night with champagne in her room. "What will you do next?"

Kendrix has been sitting on her hands all day, waiting to explode with her good news. "I got an offer to be an officer with the Galactic Space Alliance! They want to put me in charge of my own lab, and give me first considerations on their new project!"

Angela and Hayley applaud, and they clink glasses and down the champagne.

"I don't know where I'm going just yet," Angela tells them thoughtfully, "But it'll be somewhere where I can do something important. Where I can put my research to work. I want to do good in the world, you know?"

Hayley just grins at the both. "Oh, you will," she says happily, "You both will."

"What about you?" Kendrix wonders, quirking an eyebrow. "You going to take another six years to finish your degree?"

Hayley shrugs. "I'll go where I'm needed. Besides, without me, what would students do for coffee at four in the morning?"

* * *

Its some years later when Kendrix gets a subspace transmission on Miranoi from Angela. It isn't very long, just the usual how to do's, and missing the sisterhood, pictures of her wedding and little girl. But at the very end is a small P.S.

_P.S.,_ it reads, _you'll never guess what finally got Hayley out of that coffee shop in Boston. But I hear a new kid is running it now, very cute, and he's just as infamous as she ever was!_

A quick search brings up a satellite picture her old university, and sure enough, the sign on the shop has changed. It now reads, "Trent's Cyberspace".

Kendrix grins. Oh, how the world rolls on.


End file.
